When to remove lilac cuttings from humid bag

When to remove lilac cuttings from humid bag

Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:55 pm

Hello,

I am trying to grow lilacs from cuttings. Backstory: these are lilacs from my wife's childhood home I gave her for her birthday. We were seeing lots of new buds on all branches after about 3 weeks but we went on vacation for a week and when we cam home nearly all the buds dried out except for the two branches with leaves/buds in the attached picture. Obviously, this being a gift that my wife loves, I'd like very much to do everything perfect to keep these two cuttings alive. The cuttings have now been in the pot for 6 weeks. My questions:

- these cuttings are currently in a clear plastic bag with a tomatoes cage holding up the plastic and I spray two or three times a day with a spray bottle to keep things humid. Everything I've read says to keep the cuttings humid. However, I've also read that lilacs are prone to fungus so I'm worried the leaves will rot if I leave them in too long and worried that they'll dry out if I take them out too soon. How do I know when I should I move the cutting with the leaves (currently the biggest leaf is about a half inch wide) out of the humid evironment? Should I remove any cuttings that look like they are dead or probably not going to sprout buds to reduce the likelihood of rot and mold or is there still a chance these will generate buds (last picture shows some of the cuttings with no buds)?

- The cuttings are in a west facing window. I put the sheer curtain between the window and the pot to mimic indirect light which is what several online resources say the cuttings need. Now that the leaves on one of the cuttings are getting bigger, should I expose them to direct light? They probably get around 6 hours of light in that window. Is that enough?